


Endurance

by Rad_Loser_Weenie



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Any Marvel universe applicable to this story, Macabre, Multi, Post-Apocalypse, Tragedy, Viral Plague, no powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-11
Updated: 2014-12-11
Packaged: 2018-03-01 06:03:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2762366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rad_Loser_Weenie/pseuds/Rad_Loser_Weenie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's funny how it happened the day after their respective high school graduation ceremonies. </p><p><i>We sometimes joked that at least the world had waited until we had graduated to go to hell.</i><br/>It took too long for them to meet, but would they have changed a single event? </p><p> </p><p>  <i>We're glad we met when we did, things...would not have gone as well, had we not. And this ending? This ending is perfect.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Endurance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nohaljiachi](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Nohaljiachi).



> This is a gift for my Tumblr Steve Tony Gift Exchange giftee nohaijiachi.tumblr.com, who ever so kindly allowed me to write a more general setting for the story, than what they wished for. I truly hope this is a good end product for them.  
> Happy SteveTonyFest, everybody!  
> I do not own Marvel in anyway shape or form.  
> Please do excuse my very messy writing, as I was trying to be more passionate than correct in this story. (Meaning I'm very aware of my run-on sentences and heavy abuse of commas, but I'm looking for more of content enjoyment that of grammar/punctuation enjoyment. Thank you.)

_The first time their eyes met, it was as one was blasting, and the other was shielding. They’d had a moment of silent communication and soon had retreated from the deadly onslaught of the Infected. The introductions had been swift and soft, you never knew when there was an Infected nearby._

_“Anthony Stark, call me Tony. Specialties in long-range and improvisation, with a heavy skill in tech and weapons.”_

_“Steve Rogers. Just call me Steve. Strategy, heavy hitting, raids, and defense. Part of the SHIELD colony.”_

_And that was it. Tony followed Steve with minimal fuss, because for this man to belong to a colony was, hopefully, a sign of salvation. Tony had lost too many of his own group to even consider not taking advantage. Steve had been on a run that time, merely for some luxuries, and he’d managed an entire backpack full of packaged soaps and about ten half smooshed chocolate bars. He shared a chocolate with Tony who clearly was running low on energy, and their silence became pleasant and communicative in its own right._

 

________________________________________  
During the next five years after that pivotal moment, Steve had risen the ranks in the SHIELD colony until he had become one of the Director's number one men. Tony had taken over the resource division and was doing his best to become an asset. Pull your weight or get out, was something not so subtly told to him by just about everyone during that first year. And Tony had swiftly proved to them just how useful he could be. It wasn't long, though, until both Steve and Tony began to have differing ideals than the SHIELD colony, and although they understood just how important a colony like SHIELD was, they could not be happy within it. And so, after long talks and many even longer meetings, Tony and Steve had become the unofficially official leaders of an off-shoot of the SHIELD colony, one toting many names. They’d broken off from the main colony two and a half years after Tony had arrived and had been surviving in a strangely convenient abandoned complex hidden deep within the urban wasteland of New York City. Several others had come and gone; Jan, Pym, Jessica, Carol, Phil, Peter, Gwen, Clint, Natasha, Bruce, Betty, Sam, Wanda, Pietro just to name a few. There was always a large group, and it was never silent in the complex. 

 

Ten years had worn on them, worn them down, worn them out, especially with so few great minds left alive. It was accepted that there would be no magical cure-all to save the world, there was no one who had survived a bite to get a mystical antidote from. The only way to survive, was to endure.  
And endure is what they did. It is what they all did best, there is no way they would all have survived this long without endurance. But there is only so much even the strongest of wills could take. There would come a time when it would truly cease to matter to them, whether they survived or not. Endurance only takes one so far. 

This breaking point, was reached on the 10th anniversary of Day Zero, ten years since the world fell silent. Ten years since the last carefree moment in all of their lives. 

And they wanted to have one more.  
It started as a joke, shared between exhausted comrades, fresh from a raid into the city, covered in dirt and soot from the desolate city and hard combat.  
“One day, I’ll find a Mustang and drive it with the top down, and scream and laugh and not give a shit about silence or stealth or caution.”  
“Man, I’d love to get drunk off my ass and look up at the stars and maybe fall asleep and never wake up.”  
Wry grins passed between the two, tired chuckles and head shakes as they passed through the secure gates into the compound to share their spoils. 

But it didn’t end there, soon, it became a tradition of sorts. Someone would return from a trip, and would share their visions of peace with whomever would listen. Harmless daydreams, macabre and desperate. A joke, became a tradition, tradition became daydreams, daydreams became plans.  
Finally, on one long night, the entirety of the Colony’s members were gathered for a feast of epic proportions, and Steve, catching Tony’s eyes nodded and they both stood. They quickly caught the attention of the room, and as they spoke, lights began to shine in the eyes of all those gathered around them. 

It was quickly and efficiently planned out, down to the last detail, what would be happening. Steve and Tony, holding hands as they both spoke in turns. 

“So, preparations begin at dawn. We have everything planned, and the operation will take place the following day. For now, we feast!”  
Cheers rang through the mess hall and everyone dug into the meals with fervor, each person excitedly talking about their individual plans.  
Steve and Tony sat at the head of the hall, and spoke quietly to each other.  
“I’ve never seen all of them so happy. This really is the best way to do it.”  
Steve smiled. “Yes, this is the best way. No regrets.” 

 

________________________________________

Preparations had gone perfectly, and as the next day dawned, there was a hum of pure excitement running through the compound.  
People had already begun to carry out plans. A myriad of sounds were heard, engines and moaning, laughter and crashes, sizzling and singing.  
This day, on this day, we lived. 

Sex and food and cars and drugs and music, everything we’d not been able to enjoy as we strived to survive and endure for so long. We broke almost every rule we’d established for our safety, and it wasn’t long into the day before the Infected were sensed nearing our home. But we didn’t care.  
“Let them come. We’ll give them a grand show.” It was repeated often among us all, with so little care.  
We lived and we thrived for that day. We did everything we could do to eliminate regrets or remorse and we loved every second. Upon the moon reaching its highest peak, we all gathered, everything having been set up previously, and we entwined ourselves.  
Not a single one of us was left out of the warmth of our gathered heat.  
One last song, sung together, voices raised in cacophonous joy, before together...our last breaths were taken. 

Steve and I breathed our vows to each other, our hands intertwined and our crudely made rings flashing in the blinking light of the bomb. We smiled and slept. 

________________________________________

The compound was surrounded by a great many Infected, some even close to breaching the gates so valued by the colony. But it was not to be for them, they would not find food, for the moment a mindless Infected clumsily brushed over a small black pad, the entirety of the Compound, and the grounds for acres around it, went up in caustic, incinerating flames. The sound was heard by no one living, and the sight left behind would have been awe-inspiring. 

_They’d lived. And that’s all they had ever wanted._

_**END**_


End file.
